Selected for The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2016
Borb by Jason Little (Shutterbug Follies, Motel Art Improvement
Service) is the story of Borb, a severely alcoholic homeless man. Borb
is a downtrodden urban Candide whose misfortunes pile up at an alarming
rate. The narrative is presented as a series of daily newspaper strips
as the author draws on the long and complex tradition of the comic strip
slapstick vagabond archetype. At once hilarious, horrifying, and full or
heart, Borb depicts the real horrors specific to present-day urban
homelessness. Borb is Little's most complex and challenging work.
Jason Little studied photography at Oberlin College, and now resides
in Brooklyn with writer Myla Goldberg and their daughter Zelie
Goldberg-Little. He has been drawing cartoons since he was a child. In
addition to acclaimed Shutterbug Follies and Motel Art Improvement
Service, he also created the Xeric Award-winning Jack's Luck Runs
Out, as well as a number of short works for various cartoon
anthologies.